Essendon Apologise to Andrew Thorburn
... but the Bombers CEO doesn't get his job back
The Essendon Football Club has apologised to Andrew Thorburn who was forced from his role as club CEO for the crime of attending an Anglican church.
What a pity it took legal action for one of the country’s most prestigious sporting organisations to agree that an inclusive society should include Christians.
Thorburn’s case made national headlines in October when, just hours after being appointed to run the AFL club, he was pushed to resign because of links to a church.
The Age newspaper outed Thorburn as chairman of a church where, almost a decade earlier, a preacher had expressed views supporting a biblical view of life and sexuality.
This, apparently, made Thorburn unfit to lead an inclusive and diverse sporting club, despite the fact he had not personally expressed any opinion about abortion and despite the fact he had been a champion of LBGTQ rights in his previous role as CEO of the National Australia Bank.
Thorburn launched action against Essendon alleging wrongful termination after they forced him to decide between chairing the board of his local church and the club CEO position.
Yesterday Essendon released a statement saying Thorburn was …
“ … a person of integrity who treats others, whether at work or elsewhere, with dignity and respect”.
The statement continued …
“He has a strong track record of leadership including with respect to diversity and inclusion of LGBTIQ and other minority groups”.
The club agreed to make a donation to an ethics organisation, which would …
“ … prepare an independent paper on how sporting organisations can build inclusive communities recognising freedoms including those relating to race, religion and sexuality”.
I’m not sure why a paper needs to be written in order for the country’s most popular sporting code to know it is wrong to discriminate against Christians.
But here we are.
That Thorburn received an apology is little comfort. He was forced from his job, publicly shamed, and is now on a 12 month break from all work as he recovers from the ordeal.
“Soz”, doesn’t really cut it.
If Thorburn is a person of integrity and if Thorburn has a track record of respecting minority groups, why has Thorburn not been reinstated as club CEO?
Herald-Sun football writer Jon Ralph tweeted:
“Understand Essendon has settled its dispute with Andrew Thorburn, it’s CEO for a day. He will donate any money received to charity. Club can move on finally.”
Club can finally move on?
Wow. Just wow.
Essendon got rid of a Christian and then, belatedly, when threatened with legal action, said ‘oops’.
Essendon trashed a man’s reputation and then, months when he was unemployed and potentially unemployable due to the publicity, decided to admit he was actually an upstanding individual after all.
It’s all good though, because the “club can move on finally”. (Insert massive eye roll about here)
Christians have been warned.
What I found as shocking as Essendon's treatment of Andrew Thorburn were the comments made by a certain premier who vilified a private citizen by using his Catholicism as a justification for his pro-stance, to such an extent that senior leaders of Faith, including Catholic, Anglican, Baptist and the Muslim spoke out and condemned his words. I have much respect for all those leaders who came out in support of Andrew Thorburn.
I grew up in Hobart supporting TGL teams. (I am that old.) And Essendon was my VFL team. Now I despise all professional sport and avoid it at all costs. I even mute commentary. This debacle just continues to confirm my view. ‘Essendon can move on…’ that says it all. I pray God will use Andrew Thorburn in a mighty way. I pray AT will realise you can never appease the LGBT..etc gods ever.